Lemon-Walnut Hummus

Here’s what I learned last night: If you’re making hummus but find yourself out of tahini, walnuts are a perfectly delicious substitute.

I, it should be said, was not out of tahini. In fact, I’d been overcharged on tahini earlier that very day. But flipping through some cookbook or another, I found a recipe for lemon-walnut hummus that sounded pretty good. Take a can of chickpeas, a half cup of toasted walnuts (I used a bit more), a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil, a few shakes of cumin, a shake or two of coriander, cayenne to taste (I added as much cayenne as I did cumin), and three tablespoons of lemon juice. Combine in the food processor. Pulse for 15 seconds. If you want to thin it out, add a tablespoon or two of water and pulse again. Totally delicious. Dead simple. This stuff will be in my fridge from now on.

I make a very similar hummus, but with garlic, and freshly-ground spices. Try grinding the cumin and coriander fresh; it will blow your mind. I think hummus with walnuts or even just olive oil, instead of the tahini, is a big improvement over the traditional style. Cleaner, somehow. I do love tahini for other applications.